It was my best friend Sarah’s birthday and we all decided to go out and celebrate by having dinner at a well-known restaurant. As soon as we arrived and settled, a wonderful staff welcomed us and a host led us to our table and handed us the menu. We each decided what we wanted to eat for dinner and made sure to inform the waiter. While waiting for the food to arrive, I saw the manager going from table to table and asking the customers whether they were pleased with everything. The food finally arrived to the table and we began eating. Soon enough, one of my picky friends had a complain about her food portions. She immediately called the waiter and started complaining about the lack of crab in her meal. He nicely explained to her that the kitchen staff set specific portions according to each meal. My friend kept on complaining and shouting at the waiter. She eventually called the manager over. Despite all of the fuss, the waiter, manager and even the whole staff kept a smile on their face and addressed my friend with respect. They never showed anger, annoyance or even frustration with her unreasonable outbursts. This phenomenon did surprise me a lot. After a while of my friend arguing, the manager eventually took the plate back to the kitchen and added more crab to her dish. I assumed that they withheld a motto that the customer is always right. The restaurant staff work hard on maintaining an emotional stance that benefits them in their business endeavors. They maintain a huge smile and a soothing tone of voice to please their customers and not run out of business. This reminded me of a topic we discussed in sociology class pertaining the idea of interaction and how it affects the society around us. This got me thinking, how and why these staff members keep a smile through all this frustration.
Restaurant staff, flight attendants, individuals who work in customer service and many more entities are subjected to training when it comes to portraying this emotion. Role interactions are also important since they provide a basis to create social institutions. These institutions are created by the actions of the individuals. According to Max’s Weber’s theory of symbolic interactionism, language, meaning and symbols are essential for interaction in the real world. Many types of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication are used to provide individuals, whom we are interacting with, with appropriate cues that give meaning to what we are doing. Those cues and symbols provide us with details about nature of our actions, thus on the micro level. However, what about how interaction affects social structures on the macro level? Arie Hochschild talked about the concept of “emotional labor”. This concept pertains that individuals who work in customer service have to train and manage their feelings. In that way, they portray an acceptable facial and bodily display for the public. The waiters in the restaurant were actually trained to maintain their emotions, however, what guarantees that the waiter did not just spit in my friend’s plate as revenge in background? This emotional labor is considered very bad for the laborer. There is no way of self-expression. They become machines that generate the right responses when told to do so. This will lead them to become less integrated in society and distanced from their emotions. Deep inside, the workers are putting on a mask and hiding their true selves and emotions leading to stress and alienation of the self.
Consequently, the waiter, manager and staff that were serving us were not portraying their true emotions. Even in case of frustrations, they are not able to express themselves. Each part of the working staff in any similar establishment has a certain role. By each part doing his or her role, they are able to make the place function, or else, the restaurant or any workplace would collapse. Thus, each individual resembles an organ in the human body. The organs work together to promote the well-being of the body. It can be said the same with the restaurant staff. The people need each other and complete the picture. The concept of functionalism is applied in that case. Through my sociological imagination, I was able to think of ways the workers can contribute on a macro-level, especially through the livelihood of the workplace. However, it is essential for them to make sacrifices in order to keep their jobs and provide the customers with what they want and need. The workers’ fake rather attitude, nonetheless, provides and essential growth. The growth in our economy. The more restaurants, shops and other institutes that stay open, the more the economy benefits. The downside of that concept is that it disregards the emotional state of the workers.
Surprisingly, here we can mention that the manifest content of the deed, which is providing the customers with a smile, is not the only thing we must focus on. There is also a latent, hidden content by which joins these individuals together and creates a bond where managing their emotions preserves the success and well-being of the whole restaurant. This concept, being still a part of functionalism, is provided by Merton.
The emotional labor of customer service workers is beneficial in many ways like how it is being portrayed in the video link I inserted below. It could help in putting game face on; however, should we keep on restricting individuals from expressing their genuine feelings or let them slowly burnout?
Check out this video where Don Crawley discusses some of the benefits of emotional labor just for customers and not the workers:
